Understanding Ted Kennedy requires that we understand alcoholism. And sometimes, it really does take an addict.
Sometimes, it takes an addict:
Senator Edward “Ted” Kennedy, dead from brain cancer at 77. Kennedy’s life was filled with the conflicts, inconsistencies and enigmas that are rarely explained by anything other than alcoholism. Although he reportedly sobered up in the 1990s, to the end he continued to manipulate the system wherever he could and maintain he was not drunk the night he left a party in 1969 and drove his chauffeur’s limousine off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island into Poucha Pond, leaving Mary Jo Kopechne to drown. However, the facts belie the claim: he swam to shore and walked back to the party, past several houses and a fire station. (Kopechne had scratched the upholstered floor above her head in ...
